Intellectual Exchange

U.S.-Japan Journalism Fellows 2010

Participant Bios

Emily Ann Bomersback
Indiana University, School of Journalism
Emily Ann Bomersback graduated from Purdue University with an Undergraduate Degree in Mass Communications and English, with a focus was on Advertising, and Entertainment Marketing. During her Undergraduate career, she gained experience by working for Frankel Brand Marketing in Chicago, IL., Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, MI. and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado.
Upon graduation, she moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany where she was employed by the Department of Defense and helped with the development of marketing strategies for a resort and adjoining ski lodge in the Bavarian Alps. Currently, Emily is a Graduate student at Indiana University, working towards a Master’s degree in Journalism with a concentration in International Studies. Her main research interests focus on how the media shapes consumer habits, specifically those geared toward travel and tourism.

Megan GreggEmerson College, Department of Journalism
Megan Gregg is a second year graduate student in the Journalism program at Emerson College in Boston. She holds the position of Co-News Director for the college’s television station, WEBN – TV. Outside her studies, Gregg works as a writer for the ABC local news affiliate in Boston, WCVB – Channel 5. Prior to enrolling at Emerson, she spent six years living and working in San Francisco, CA. Originally from the Boston area, Gregg completed her undergraduate studies at Tufts University and the School of Museum of Fine Arts. Upon finishing her education, Gregg hopes to gain employment as a television news producer. Aside from her professional accomplishments, she enjoys traveling and has a serious interest in photography.

Artis Henderson
University of Maryland, Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Artis Henderson is based in Dakar, Senegal, where she reports for the West Africa bureau of the Associated Press. She has won two Florida Press Association awards, and her “Modern Love” piece was recently published in The New York Times. Henderson has visited 20 countries, and she hopes to build a career as a foreign correspondent. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a graduate degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
Kerry Davis is a multimedia journalism master's student at the University of Maryland, College Park who will graduate in May 2011.She covered everything from house fires and mobsters in her previous line of work as a local news TV reporter in Fargo, N.D. and Providence, R.I., before deciding to pursue a master's degree. Davis grew up in Beulah, N.D., a small town from the Midwestern U.S. where coal mining, farming and ranching were the major forms of employment. She is the co-president of her journalism college’s student association. Davis enjoys telling people’s stories with video, audio and photos.

Stephen Nessen
Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism
Stephen Nessen is a digital producer and reporter at WNYC (New York Public Radio), where he reports stories for on air and the Web, shoots photos, edits, and manages the Web site. Prior to that, he was a general assignment reporter for the New York Post, he produced podcasts for the New York Times and he was a producer at the NPR show StoryCorps. In addition, he’s freelanced for various local newspapers, the New York Times, the British music magazine Record Collector, and the public radio show Pacific Time. Prior to his life in journalism he was a teacher at a university in Harbin and Xiamen, China and was an IELTS examiner. He also hosted an English language radio show in Harbin on Taxi Driver Radio.

Spencer Neustadt
Emerson College, Department of Journalism
Spencer Neustadt is working toward a master’s degree in broadcast journalism at Emerson College. He spent a few months living in Thailand and Cambodia after receiving his bachelor’s degree in acting and theatre studies from Emerson as well. The experience greatly influenced his choice to pursue foreign correspondence. Neustadt started his undergraduate degree at San Francisco State University, in Asian American studies, before graduating from Emerson. Recently, he maintained a blog and newsletter for a performing arts company in San Francisco, California, and interned as a story editor for a major motion picture company in Los Angeles.

Holly Nunn
University of Maryland, Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Holly Nunn is a master’s student in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She earned a bachelor’s in Government and International Politics from George Mason University, with minors in gender studies and creative writing. Nunn hopes to join her interests in women’s issues and travel to cover women in war zones. She is currently working on a project covering the issue of food access in Baltimore.
Mark Oltmanns
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism
Mark Oltmanns is a first-year graduate student of journalism and Asian Studies at UC-Berkeley. He grew up in and around Chicago and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in Political Science, Asian Studies and International Studies. After graduating, Mark moved to Bangkok, Thailand where he taught English, received a Blakemore Fellowship to study advanced Thai, and worked as a translator in a central police station. He has extensive experience abroad, including five years in Southeast Asia where he reported on security issues in the region. He has covered political unrest in Myanmar, landmines in Cambodia, and insurgency in southern Thailand. Mark speaks Thai and French and is currently studying Indonesian.

Devon Petley
New York University, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
Devon Petley is a graduate student at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute studying video and multimedia journalism. He work has appeared with Dateline NBC, NYCTV, and NYU. He focuses on long-form video journalism and overseas reporting, with an interest in making hard news stories accessible through the web. He is currently finishing a thirty minute piece on amateur boxing in New York City, a feature length piece on coal mining in China, and is beginning pre-production work on a new documentary about the Afghanistan War, all through his production company, Aeterno Productions. He lives in Queens, New York.

Bolanle Omisore
New York University, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
Bolanle “Bola” Omisore is a multimedia journalist and a master’s candidate at New York University’s journalism school. Before starting at NYU, Bola worked at Black Entertainment Television (BET) in digital media and interned on Capitol Hill. Since matriculating at NYU, Bola has interned for ABC News on the show Nightline, has been a freelance video journalist for the New York Times, and is still currently at ABC News. Though her interests are broad, Bola has recently been very interested in international renewable energy projects and sustainable development.